Royal Shakespeare English Booklet

RSC School Shakespeare

Discover a new way to connect with Shakespeare and his plays oup.com.au/secenglish

RSC School Shakespeare

Developed in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), and fully supported by trusted RSC approaches, RSC School Shakespeare helps students to establish a deeper understanding and lasting appreciation of Shakespeare’s work.

RSC School Shakespeare provides: •

unabridged texts paired with proven approaches and techniques that teachers can trust will work in the classroom

•

vibrant performance images that help to establish connections with the written texts and the plays in performance

•

accessible editions of the play to inspire confidence in students as they read and start to appreciate Shakespeare’s plays.

“An actor once described the rehearsal room to me as a ‘place of possibilities.’

I think that’s also a wonderful description to apply to a classroom and it’s what we hope our new RSC School Shakespeare editions help to create.”

Jacqui O’Hanlon Royal Shakespeare Company Director of Education

Discover, connect, inspire Help students to connect with the written texts and the plays in performance through the clear and accessible layout, vibrant performance images and motivational activities.

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Series overview “Magnificently matched to the learning needs of Secondary students, enabling them to authentically share in the cultural inheritance of Shakespeare. It brings 400-year-old words to life and translates his plays with great insight, energy and impact.”

Secondary School Teacher review

Student books

Macbeth 9780198364832

The Merchant of Venice 9780198365952

A Midsummer Night’s Dream 9780198364818

Much Ado About Nothing 9780198365945

Romeo and Juliet

The Tempest

9780198364801

9780198364825

1 3

Look Inside ...

Each spread in the RSC School Shakespeare series contains the unabridged text from the complete play script on the right-hand page. Accompanying the script, on the left-hand page, is a series of key features.

“For every scene in the RSC School Shakespeare series we have provided insight into RSC rehearsal practice, so that students can link the work they are doing in the classroom to the work that is done by actors, directors and designers. We hope that students will see themselves as fellow artists, working alongside the professionals, exploring the play in a similar way.”

Jacqui O’Hanlon Royal Shakespeare Company Director of Education

Page summaries help students to contextualise the text and understand the action.

In Venice, Bassanio asks Shylock the moneylender if he will make a loan of 3000 ducats, for three months, which Antonio will be bound to pay back.

Act 1 | Scene 3

Did you know?

Actors work out what their character’s objective is and what tactics they use to achieve it. This helps them communicate clearly what kind of person their character is and how they behave.

Enter Bassanio with Shylock the Jew Three thousand ducats, well.

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Bassanio

Ay, sir, for three months.

2

Shylock

For three months, well.

3

For the which, as I told you, Antonio shall be bound.

4

Antonio shall become bound, well.

5

Bassanio

May you stead me? Will you pleasure me? Shall I know your answer?

6

Shylock

Three thousand ducats for three months and Antonio bound.

8

Your answer to that.

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Antonio is a good man.

10

Have you heard any imputation to the contrary?

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Ho, no, no, no, no. My meaning in saying he is a good man is to have you understand me that he is sufficient.Yet his means are in supposition. He hath an argosy bound to Tripolis, another to the Indies. I understand moreover, upon the Rialto, he hath a third at Mexico, a fourth for England, and other ventures he hath squandered abroad. But ships are but boards, sailors but men.

There be land-rats and water-rats, water-thieves and land-thieves, I mean pirates, and then there is the peril of waters, winds and rocks. The man is, notwithstanding, sufficient. Three thousand ducats. I think I may take his bond.

12

Be assured you may.

22

I will be assured I may. And that I may be assured, I will bethink me. May I speak with Antonio?

23

Shylock

Bassanio Shylock

Shylock and Antonio, 2011

Activity 1: Exploring objectives and tactics a. In pairs, decide who will play Shylock and Bassanio.

Read aloud lines 1–24. b. Discuss what you think Shylock and Bassanio are trying to achieve in these lines. For example, Shylock might want to find out if he should make the loan or he might want to avoid telling Bassanio whether he will make the loan. Write down what you decide for the character you are playing. That is the character’s objective. c. Now read aloud lines 1–24 again. Every time your character says something that helps them to achieve their objective from task b, tick beside the objective. d. Look back over lines 1–24, remembering the points at which you added ticks. Write down the tactics you think Shylock and Bassanio used at those points. Use the photo on this page to help you.

Glossary 1 ducats Venetian gold coins 4 bound legally bound to pay back 6 stead assist 6 pleasure oblige 13 sufficient enough security 14 in supposition uncertain 14 argosy merchant ship 15 the Rialto Venetian stock

Bassanio Shylock Bassanio Shylock

exchange 20 notwithstanding nevertheless

Key terms Objective what a character wants to

get or achieve in a scene Tactics the methods a character uses to get what they want

36

Bassanio Shylock

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13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

24

37

The Merchant of Venice

Performance images from different productions encourage students to think about alternative interpretations of the text.

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Activities explore the plays and help consolidate learning.

Exploring Act 4 Activity 1: Designing Act 4 Look back over Act 4. Use the page summaries to help you remember what happens. a. Where does the action of Act 4 take place? Imagine you are the designer of a production of Macbeth. Write down all the locations for the action that you would need. For example, you might include the place in which Lady Macduff and her children are murdered in Act 4 Scene 2. b. What are the essential props for Act 4?

Write a list of props you would need.

For example, you might include the Apparitions that appear in Act 4 Scene 1. c. What would you say was the overall mood of Act 4? What colours might suit that mood? d. Write notes on, draw or make a model of your stage design for Act 4.

Activity 2: Exploring characters in Act 4 a. In groups, choose one of the following characters: • Macbeth • Macduff • Ross • Malcolm.

Look back over Act 4 and make a note of your chosen character’s actions. You may wish to use a diagram such as a flow chart or spider diagram. b. Discuss the ways in which your chosen character has been changed by the events of Act 4. You could add these to your diagram. Predict what you think will happen to this character in the final act of the play.

Did you know?

Theatre designers start by investigating the script of the play. They work with the director to build a three-dimensional world in which the action of the play can take place. Their choice of colours, locations and props helps the audience to understand the action of the play.

Key term Prop an object used in the play, e.g. a dagger

174

Lady Macduff and her son, 2011

Additional features provide insights into RSC rehearsal room practice, whilst activities help students put the play in context.

Ross, Macduff and Malcolm, 2007

175

Macbeth

William Shakespeare and his world

Shakespeare's world

Back in the regular theatre, Shakespeare’s acting troupe, the King’s Men, was probably about twelve or fourteen men (male actors played all the roles, including female ones), so they also doubled up and played more than one part. It is likely that most costumes were the Jacobean equivalent of ‘modern dress’: so that actors were wearing clothes similar to those around the audience and the London streets. Audiences needed to bring their imaginations with them to the theatre.

Shakespeare’s company and the theatre When he wrote The Tempest, Shakespeare was an actor, the chief playwright and an investor in a company of actors sponsored by King James and known as the King’s Men. The company performed their plays in the Globe theatre on the banks of the river Thames in London. The Globe was an open-air theatre with a large yard for standing audience members and tiered seating around the outside. The King’s Men also had an indoor theatre called Blackfriars, which was more expensive to attend and had better technical effects: Shakespeare may be drawing on these when he includes pieces of stage business such as Ariel descending from above the stage like a harpy (a mythological creature with a bird’s body and a female face).

The audience for Shakespeare’s plays was quite mixed, but probably tended to be younger rather than older and male rather than female. Entry to the open-air theatres like the Globe was cheap – one penny, the cost of two pints of beer – so a relatively diverse social mix could attend; for the Blackfriars it was more expensive and more exclusive. We don’t know how well educated the audience was, although educational opportunities were expanding during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and historians think that male literacy levels in London at this point may have been as high as 50%. Literacy was connected to social status: wealthier individuals were much more likely to be educated than poorer ones. But more people went to see Shakespeare’s plays in the theatre than read them when they were printed.

The modern Globe Theatre in London is modelled on the theatre that Shakespeare’s company built in 1599

The ‘Flower’ portrait of Shakespeare, c. 1830

As King James’s preferred acting troupe, Shakespeare’s company also performed at court and there they experienced a different form of dramatic entertainment called the masque. Jacobean masques were very over-the-top and expensive shows of wealth and power; the masques were full of grand costumes, music, dancing and purpose-built staging, with some highly technical effects. A famous architect, Inigo Jones, often designed complex scenery for these masques; he believed that the audience’s enjoyment of the masque was more for its visual splendour than for its words. Jones developed techniques including machines to lower and raise actors so that they looked as if they were flying, which also may have influenced Shakespeare when he created the character of Ariel. Masque technology was a bit like modern cinema special effects: full of hi-tech visual surprise.

188

Biographical, social and historical information helps students engage with the background to the plays.

189

Much Ado About Nothing

3 5

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Oxford School Shakespeare Choose from 20 complete plays and encourage instant comprehension with clear notes and commentaries giving detailed explanations of difficult words and passages. Oxford School Shakespeare offers a highly accessible two-column format that makes reference-checking easy and explanations more immediate.

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